Lily Burana Try

Try

Lily Burana

St. Martin's, Jul 2006, $24.95

ISBN: 031235505X

Artist Daryl Heatherly leaves the Denver area to return to her family home in the Cheyenne, Wyoming vicinity. She and her brother Jace plan to sell the place. However on the drive, Daryl thinks about how poorly she chooses relationship having figuratively burned her last one with reverse snob Alex whom she met two years ago at Colorado State.

At the Bluffs Ranch in Wyoming, Daryl meets world champion rodeo fortyish cowboy J.W. Jarrett. He behaves like a perfect gentleman though he is attracted to the enthusiastic girl half his age. She, in turn, finds his gentle romantic old west manner enticing. In spite of her sibling's strong objection of her dating a cowboy twice her age and her friend warning her that J.W. suffers from relationship phobia because of all his groveling groping groupies, they become an entry as they travel the circuit together. Still she has doubts as she wants independence not dependence on both their parts so J.W. knows he must continue to get off the dirt and TRY to convince his beloved that their May-December love is forever.

The background rodeo circuit is vibrant as the dust, bruises, and injuries of those participating in the circuit and their beloved family members accompanying them provide a strong setting reminiscent of the Wide World of Sports. The lead couple is a fascinating pairing of an older man with a younger woman but both their closest friends and family believe it is wrong yet love makes it so right so each understands they must TRY. Readers will appreciate this delightful "old west" contemporary romance that showcases "the thrill of victory", "the agony of defeat" and "the human drama of athletic competition" in the rodeo and in life.

Harriet Klausner